


I Ain't Comin' Back

by grnidshrk



Category: Firefly, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Canon Adultery, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M, Firefly Chinese, M/M, Mild Gore, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Torture, Refugees, Zombies, mild insanity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 19:07:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5427317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grnidshrk/pseuds/grnidshrk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Story goes, when Rick starts High school and meets Shane, that his family worked on a boat doing salvage work in international waters until they'd been run afoul by the Chinese.</p><p>The Truth is only <i>slightly</i> stranger than the Fiction.</p><p>After all, the Alliance was mainly Chinese . . . and American but considering the current time frame they all felt better able to protect themselves on American soil than any other.</p><p>It's just a pity really, that they landed on Earth-That-Was a few decades shy of the cause that <i>MADE</i> humanity leave Earth in a Mass exodus.</p><p><a href="http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary">How W'rin Bu Lai, Whai W'rin Bu Jwo(1)</a> For Serenity's Crew.<br/>(1)Things never go smooth</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Ain't Comin' Back

**Author's Note:**

> If you're using a tablet or computer, feel free to _HOVER_ over the links for translations, Clicking on them will take you to the Firefly wiki Dictionary. Other wise the numbers correlate to translations in the notes at the bottom.
> 
> Also, a beta reader and someone to bounce ideas off of would be appreciated. This is going to really start deviating from cannon once we hit Hershel's Farm
> 
> PS, I _might_ make this a series, maybe with flashes to Serenity's life before they came to Earth that was and after when they're adjusting. IF you have an idea to add to this story or you _want_ to write an excerpt for the above, hit me up in the comments and I'll give you my email and we can talk

Morgan told him he'd reacted well for a guy half dead and never seeing a walker before, Rick didn't really have it in him to say that Walkers were still leagues better than Reavers.

This world they were living in now, it no worse than where he’d lived before. Now there was just no escape into the black as there used to be, no safety in a metal hull or a better death spacing yourself into the black than letting them tear into you. There were more than just Walkers that could eat you alive, after all, humans had just forgotten that truth.

Rick Grimes wasn’t really sure he should point that out to the man, that humans were only at the top because of tech and now they’d have to learn all over again with their resources far and few in between. He’d survive, they had a lot more available beside protein of every color and fuel cells to worry about now.

* * *

He’d grown up a pilot better than his da and as strong as his momma, a core of steel that not even the Alliance could break. He learned flight at his aunt’s knee, soaring those ageless skies buried deep in his heart, making his Momma tear as she learned he flew even better than their reader girl. He learned shooting from his momma and Captain, trackin' from his uncle and basic mechanics from his aunt, and a bit o'doctorin' from his uncle. He and Vera, and later on the little twin Terrors Uncle Simon and Aunt Kaylee had, Josephine and Arwen, learned well from their family.

He an' Vera, well, they were the oldest, true children of Serenity. Scavengers and thieves like the lot of them. Rebels and Browncoats. They were all good at snubbing the people Aunt River and Uncle Simon had come from, and people talk. They talked enough for the blue hands to learn about the children taught by their runaway weapon.

The Alliance had learned, grab’em hard and quick; they didn't go for aunt River that last time, though.

No he an' Lil Vera were the targets and it didn't take the Alliance long this time to pull’em out an' put'em both back in sideways. Bein' sideways with each other though is what brought the blue hands down, they grown together and pullin'em out together just meant that their sideways met and grounded them both. They took what the Alliance had tried to make them and what Serenity had taught them and made it out.

The blue hands wouldn't come back this time, they couldn’t.

Jayne cried as his daughter talked like his River just before Miranda, as Rick answered her in kind. It didn't take long for them to fix themselves though, not with Serenity and Simon-doctor and River-reader. They weren't quite sideways no more, just crooked, and that was fine with them all, s'long as they weren't all moon brain and aimin' to kill all who denied them, their family was fine.

And then the Alliance tried to get them all, pull all of them in and deal with Malcom Reynolds and his crew of blasphemers.

A Firefly slipping through an Ion cloud while being hit with some form of weapon by the Alliance had brought him here, brought his family here, to earth-that-was. It wasn't hard really, fittin' in with the rest of humanity pre-terrafoming and Reavers, especially in the southern area of America where'd they crashed. Filtering the Chinese out was difficult at first but aunt River showed them all, taught them poker and black jack and pop culture and made them a small homestead bought with patents she'd sold for software and hardware both.

They settled, not really 'legal' but doing nothing illegal, either.

Entering 'highschool' was rough, he was unpolished, a 'country bumpkin', with a mind that wandered to the girl who's his sister in all but blood as they were surrounded by such mobs of persons for longer than ever before, but he quickly proved them all wrong alongside his little cousin, sister, partner, Vera.

No one understood the grins and laughs when asked about their names in English Class, doing projects on their etymology, and why their parents had chosen those names. Serenity’s crew had all changed their names, circumstances as they were they didn’t want the Alliance following them into this world where they made themselves home and takin’ them out just as they’d finally pulled themselves up from dirt and crime. 

Hoban Richard Washburn was Richard 'Rick' Hoban Grimes here and Vera Cobb-Tam became Vera Cobham among the public but in private there was no change, they were criminals by trade and keeping up a façade around outsiders was nothing they hadn’t all done before.

They’d made themselves lives in this world and then. Well, then the dead started walking.

* * *

A metropolis sized herd of Walkers would freak anyone out, Reavers or no, so his reactions in Atlanta were excusable, especially when his family motto is 'Shoot first, apologize later'. 

Merle, well Merle reminded Rick more than a little bit of Uncle Jayne, he was crass and threats to leave him for the walkers, especially after locking him to the roof piping was more’n a little like the Captain threatening to space the man. Going back for him wasn’t an option at the time however and Rick knew the man’s life would hang over him for a while in this new world order. The little camp the Atlanta group reminded him oddly of Serenity, though knowing that there was a brother waiting for them that would miss Merle was a bit more than a mite bit worrying.

Finding Carl, Lori, and Shane, was a relief. Rick could live in this world, could probably make due better than most, but that didn't mean he'd leave his son behind. He and Lori had been falling apart for years and already he could see the writing on the wall between his wife and partner, the only thing left to write was the resolution to that story and it probably wouldn't be pretty. He gave them the bare-bones of his waking and the trek to the Capital, only _some_ of the thoughts that’d gone through his head in the city. 

The meeting the next morning with Daryl went exactly as he figured it would, though the man was a mite bit more short tempered than he’d thought, then again losing a deer he’d trailed for over a day to the dead walking would have shortened his temper as well.

Going to get Merle the next day was . . . well it was an adventure. 

The man truly reminded him of the serenity crew, loping off his own hand and all. Missing the man and then deciding to go after the guns in the meantime didn’t mean that Rick took his mind of the elder Redneck. If anything coming up with a plan to get Glenn back from the Vatos and deciding what to do with the guns made him think all the more of the missing member and what he might do. Knowing that Merle knew the way to camp and in that direction also lay the truck made Rick decide to _reach out_ as it were to find the man and nudge him in the right direction. It was just his luck Aunt River had taught them to find and pick out the . . . flavors different minds come in of the people he met, if he knew their general direction. The man was thinking on taking off on them, taking the Truck, but just a little nudge and Merle decided to rest in it instead, tiredness from blood loss being the ruffian’s reason and Rick relaxed a little, knowing that the truck was safe, Merle was found and all they had to do was get Glenn back.

Like he said, it was an adventure.

With Merle and the truck in the same spot they’d left it they were back at camp at sundown, just in time to partake in the feast Andrea and Amy had caught for them. Seeing as no one really had any medical knowledge besides the first responder knowledge Shane and Rick had, Rick, having grown up with a doctor for an uncle ended up looking over Merle’s stump. There was no way, not without a way to keep the hand frozen and seeing as the RV needed to keep as much gas available as possible that the fridge and freezer were both disconnected that wouldn’t work, that it could be re-attached. 

Merle’s cussing at him and calling him several unsavory names as he looked at his wrist finally had Rick barking at him to shut up. In Chinese. Curiosity was prevalent throughout the group save for Lori, she never had been fond of the way his family talked, mixing Chinese and English, their rough accent from living in the verse and not here, _on Earth_ , had been a serious point of contention until he’d trained himself to at least not sound like he was from some back woods town even smaller than Kings County Georgia.

It was the end of the world, a [gou cao de(1)](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary) Zombie Apocalypse and given what he knew about his supposed wife and best friend, the [gāi sǐ Yao Nu(2)](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary) could deal with it. 

A small herd still managed to ambush them, losing them both Ed and Amy in the process. Merle disappeared, no one finding a body, and most of his stuff leaving with him in the confusion; Daryl spittin’ mad the next morning when they’re cleaning up the dead, not finding his kin or his stuff. The only thing left behind is the man’s bike.

The CDC was a giant Clusterfuck from the get go, his spine refusing to bend in relief even as everyone relaxed and showered and ate well for the first time in a week. Something about Jenner had itched at his nerves and that night, playing inebriated he got the answers, the man was lost, so lost, even the strange immunity his blood had to the more virulent version of the plague wasn't enough, the plagues end game would still use his body even if a bite wouldn't turn him. He was an outlier but such a thing had come too late, there was no hope or desire to continue in Jenner's mind. The next day with the building about to blow Rick'd done something he hadn't since he'd last seen Vera, seen Auntie-Momma River, he reach out and _twisted_.

It was more than the subtle nudging he’d done to Merle, he pulled that [Ta Ma De Hun Dan’s(3)](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary) mind to where he wanted it and made sure they were free. He’d have been more than a bit [Feng le(4)](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary), if he’d let Jenner Kill them all.

Jenner's mind was befuddled with grief and acceptance. They were dead, just fighting a losing battle, but a Browncoat don't lay down, they fight even if they fight for the losing side, and Rick twists enough sympathy into Jenner's mind, breaks enough of him that he unlocks the room and everyone gathers what they can before running. _'I can kill you with my Brain'_ echoes in the broken man's mind as they run, Jackie beside him, Dale and Andrea having a contest of wills several desks away. There's a niggling thought that a man like Rick Grimes could survive if those sudden thoughts are true. Maybe not sanely, but he would survive.

Fire engulfs him and any secrets he had, any knowledge of an advanced human mind and resilient body chemistry disappear.

* * *

They stop for the day after they get far enough that the walkers drawn towards the explosion can no longer be heard, the smell of melting metal and glass can no longer be smelled, circling the vehicles like wagons of old. He and Shane are sharing watch and everyone, even Daryl, is out for the count but the two on watch. It's perfect, Rick can’t help but think in a sardonic voice in his own head, like they’d planned it.

“So how long before me being shot and the world goin’ to hell did ya’ start wantin’ her?”

The words are incongruous, shocking Shane so much that he can’t even deny it at first as star blue eyes pierce him form across their camp in the dark, “I—wha—I dunno what you mean man.”

“Despite my upbringing, Shane, you know as well as any I could have gone on and been a lot more than a Sherriff’s Deputy. Now tell me the fuck is goin’ on and I’ll save ya from having to tell the rest that those scratches are from Lori and not bad dreams, [dong ma(5)](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary)?”

Rick’s friend just stares at him for a few moments before sighing, “Yeah, I—yeah. A while, Rick. I wouldn’t have done anything, ‘cept last I saw of you there was no power and no heart beat that I could tell. She came to me wanting comfort and, Christ man, I could only hold out for so long before I gave in. I’ve been wantin’ to be part of—of—”

Rick blew out through his nose and looked down at his hands, knuckles whites as he clenches his fingers against his knees, “I got it, Shane, [Yeh Su(6)](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary), I got it.”

Shane huffed out a laugh as he watched his partner from across the camp, “Heck man, I’m sorry, but, shit. Half the words outta your mouth are Chinese now'a days and they haven’t done that since after you and Lori got together, end of high school, and Maryanne was talkin’ shit about her to the other football players. I know this is messed up but I’ll try—”

Rick looked up, those blue eyes seeming even sharper in the low lamp light they were using, “No. What we’re going to do, is we’re going to find time to speak with Lori, just the three of us. You and I both know our marriage wasn’t going to last much longer, the only thing so far that’s good about the damn walkers is that we won’t have to _pay_ for the divorce. We’re going to talk and you two are going to be subtle and us _three_ are going to have to find a way to tell Carl, if he doesn’t already know.”

Shane’s face lost a few shades of color, even in the night, “Okay, alright.” He swallowed, “I don’t think Lori is going understand though, Rick. She’s, well, she’s latched back onto you pretty tightly, hell, how did you even figure it out?”

Rick looked Shane in the eye once more before standing to do some quick rounds around their circled trucks, “Call it intuition, Shane. That and the rest of the group aren’t very subtle, nor are either of you, for that matter. We’ll figure the rest out later.” Rick disappeared silently, something that both Lori and Shane had always found disturbing was now both good for their protection and even creepier as the man vanished into the walker filled night around them.

* * *

Everyone notices, at least peripherally that things aren’t as strained between Rick and Shane and longer, though the strain between Rick and Lori and Shane and Lori still gnaws on them all at the edges. People are touchy, Carol keeps not only Sophia but also Carl away from them when possible. It’s bad enough, every one notices Lori trying to play the two men off of each other while leaving her son to Carol, even Shane and Rick. Looking to Shane over Rick’s shoulder as she speaks with him leaning towards Shane while looking away from him; it’s all passive aggressive and Daryl and Carol both glace at each other wary of the woman and her games working to stay far from the trio as possible as they wind their way towards Fort Benning.

The RV breaking down was not what any of them wanted and neither was the congested road that they knew they’d have to clear a path through to continue. The only good thing about the stop was the possible supplies that were left around. Rick cursed in Chinese as the walker herd swarmed around them, the only really bad side of having walkers around instead of Reavers were that he couldn’t hear them when they were near. 

Sofia running away, drawing a few walkers with her wasn’t anything any of them had foreseen. 

**Author's Note:**

>  **Glossary** (also at: [ Firefly and Serenity Wikia](http://firefly.wikia.com/wiki/Dictionary))
> 
>  
> 
>  **gou cao de(1):** Dog Fucking
> 
>  **gāi sǐ Yao Nu(2):** Damn Demon Woman
> 
>  **Ta Ma De Hun Dan’s(3):** Mother-humping son of a bitch’s
> 
>  **Feng le(4):** Crazy
> 
>  **dong ma(5):** Understand
> 
>  **Yeh Su(6):** Jesus


End file.
